Archives February 20, 2017

It’s been fairly quiet on the blog front lately, with this post I’m trying to pick it back up again 🙂 I decided to put the blog in a fresh new theme, I really like how it turned out! It looks a lot cleaner now.

2016 in review

When I started this blog last year, I made a goals page that lists everything I wanted to get done that year. A quick review:

Earn the VCP6-DCV certificate –> FAIL. I only managed to get part 1/2 done, I haven’t gotten to part 2 yet, but it is one of the top priorities this year.

Become CCNA –> FAIL. I will be taking this one off the list. When I have some more time, I might pick it up. But for the moment, I feel my knowledge is good enough to get by.

Learn PowerShell –> PASS. Last year I started performing routine tasks using PowerShell. Eventually, I was able to automate some of the things that I had to do frequently. Over the past year, I’ve gotten a pretty good feel for the language and I’m constantly discovering new things! I will be continuing with this until I feel that I have mastered it.

Publish code to GitHub –> PASS. I published 2 scripts that I created. I also made my first ever pull request and added some tests to the awesome Vester project (If you don’t know it, check it out here!). When I get some more free time, I will be looking for some more projects to contribute to.

Attend VMUG(s) –> PASS. I managed to go to both the Belgian as the Dutch VMUGs and I’m hoping to do it this year as well.

2016 was also a big year on a personal level. In august, I changed jobs and started working for Realdolmen as a system engineer. This was one of the best decisions I have made recently, working here gives me the chance to interact with some of the smartest people I know. I get to work with complex and interesting environments and I’m learning new things every day!

But the most important thing I did, was asking my girlfriend to marry me. She said yes and we’re getting married this coming May, I’m very much looking forward to it!

Looking forward to 2017

Obviously the biggest thing for me this year is my wedding. Shortly after that, 29 colleagues and I will be climbing the legendary Mont Ventoux by bike. I’m riding a lot again and found the joy of cycling again.

On a professional level, I will also be setting a few goals for the coming year.

Earn the VCP6-DCV certificate –> This is the first thing I want to get done education wise this year. It’s possible I won’t have time to do this until the summer, though.

Continue learning PowerShell –> There’s a ton I don’t know yet, and a lot that I can do better. I’ve started to put most of my code in functions and I will be looking into building some modules where I can.

Upgrade my MCSA to 2016 –> With the release of Server 2016, it’s time to upgrade my MCSA. I don’t want to let it expire, which would mean I would have to take the first 3 exams again.

Keep the blog more active this year –> Changing jobs in the summer, starting cycling again and preparing for our wedding has eaten up most of my free time since august. I’m hoping to find some more time to keep this blog going with some new content!

Wildcard –> I’m keeping this one open for something else to do the coming year. I’m not entirely sure what it is yet, it will all depend on the amount of free time I have and how the other goals have come this year.

A short list this year, but with a lot going on in my personal life, this feels reasonable.